Quick Specs

Editors' Review

In the turbulent, choppy waters where P2P networks and copyright law chomp at each other's fins for dominance, there's at least one beast that thinks it has a solution to keep everybody happy. Its name: Grooveshark. Grooveshark is a free online jukebox service where users can search for tracks and listen to them through a Web-based player that can be controlled just like a software jukebox application. The best part, however, is that Grooveshark manages to keep itself lawsuit-free by making sure that everyone gets paid.

As content distribution has mutated from analog to digital, the companies that came into existence to control the distribution have panicked and floundered. Grooveshark's solution is to secure distribution rights from the copyright holders, but then to also reimburse those who upload content. Throw in free streaming and DRM-free downloads for 99 cents a song, garnish with community forums and outreach to independent musicians, serve with a side of cross-platform use that includes the Big Three of Windows, Mac, and multiple flavors of Linux, and we may be looking at the future of file sharing.

As you can tell from its Web site, Grooveshark includes all the major music discovery tools. There's a player in the upper-right corner; a centralized search bar; uncluttered tabs for keeping your friends and tunes organized; recommendation tools; tagging capability; private messaging; applications for MySpace, Facebook, and the iPhone; and the all-important account for watching your funds dwindle as you blow beaucoup de bucks on digital music. Sure, there may be ads, but this ensures you that someone is getting paid, which--along with the fact that Grooveshark's been operating for more than two years--reduces the chance that you'll suddenly find it gone overnight. All in all, we see no reason why you shouldn't give this Web service a shot.

read more +

Publisher's Description

Grooveshark is an online music sharing community that rewards you for sharing your music. It allows you to safely and legally downloads high quality MP3s, and there is a social networking aspect to the site, where music lovers interact with each other. Users can stream songs for free, but also have the ability to buy and download songs. If a song you have uploaded is bought, the site rewards you by giving you a cut of the profits for each song you sell.

It has a lot of music and a great layout. Ive been listening to it frequently for over 2 years and havent had a problem with viruses yet. It allows you to create playlists and even share them with friends in site or on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. Although you must have a subscription plan to use their app they now have html5 formating for the website so it is easy to use while going moble.

Cons

Pending lawsuites over copyright violation. Not sure where this is going but grooveshark may not be around for much longer.

Summary

If this site does indeed go under I will miss it very much. It does what it says and doesnt seem to cary a plethera of viruses while doing so. It has almost all the music Ive searched for and even some you cant find on youtube or other websites similar to this one. A good site, clean layout, fairly minimal ads.

malware (triggered a warning that malware was attempting to enter my machine)

caused firefox/IE8 to run slow, eventually crash

caused lag on my gf's mac

Summary

i want to like grooveshark, i really do, but it just doesn't live up to the hype. malware is present, and although others will say that the "viruses" are not there, they are. it caused IE8/firefox on my windows machine to run super slow, an eventually crash in some cases, and recently, a friend complained of her macbook pro running slow and lagging. we got off grooveshart, restarted, installed sprotify, and everything's working fine now. I don't recommend grooveshark whatsoever.

-Everything is FREE!-You can CHOOSE your own music, unlike Pandora-There is a HUGE variety of music. Even music that iTunes doesn't have is here.-You can repeat songs, if you really like one in particular-There are no ads that play in your music (they just sit on the side)-You can build your own playlists-You can use the radio feature, similar to the way Pandora plays music-You can make certain songs your favorites-You can share the music you like with friends-There is some integration with Facebook-Very easy to use user interface-No major problems...

Cons

-No mobile app/website; due to Apple, Google, Recording Studios, ETC.-You have to interact with the page every once in a while to keep the music playing. Overall, not too annoying.

In general, not too many cons...

Summary

Basically, Grooveshark is one of the top, if not the best, free music player out on the world wide web that is LEGAL. Its wide variety of music, features, is simply stunning. Aside from the fact that mobile devices can't use it, it is nothing but amazing. The memberships are really not that important-the ads don't really bother you too much, and the extra features aren't necessary.

Personally, I love the fact that you can choose your own music. Pandora drove me nuts by the second time I used it.

Also, I don't know where the claims of viruses attacking their computers came from. I use a MacBook Pro, 13-inch running OSX 10.7 (Lion), and I have had no trouble. Don't worry about this. As of the date that this was posted, there were no viruses.

Final Verdict:

Everyone should use Grooveshark, it is a great website, and it is much better than Pandora. Enjoy this amazing product while it lasts!!!

If you love music and know what you want, Grooveshark is the best. You can listen to full versions of albums, and the catalog is HUGE.

Cons

Sometimes songs aren't available, even if you listened to the same song the day before.

Summary

If you're looking to find new music that's similar to what you already like, Pandora's a great choice. But if you really want to hear a specific artist, album or song, Grooveshark is great. It's free, there aren't any ads interrupting things, and the selection is incredible.

In searching for a couple tunes that I'd like my band to cover; 1st - Lovin Spoonful - Summer In The City. It was on the search results but was buried under unrelated. 2nd was Phish - Birds of A Feather immediately search suggested the studio cut.

Cons

I have copyright infringement concerns in the future. Concerning the functionality; the site and it's library are capable of yielding any music before 1940's - 50's. There were a couple jazz standards I want to cover.Results of 6 searches was 1 track

Summary

Bottom line; this is a pivotal point for the integration in application of music tech for professional use w/ consumer based social networking marketing tools. With the RIAA's desire to kill the CD, the window is open for the industry to establish new marketing standards. Just as Sony & Phillips brought the Audio Compact Disc to market and it's long reign as the medium for consumer standard music/audio playback, there will be a company to come along that will establish future production/distribution standards. This along with soundcloud (dot) com in my opinion have the best chance to adopt this role.

It has every song you could ever think to search for. They've streamlined the interface and made it much more user friendly than in the past.

Cons

The only drawback I've run into is that there are usually multiple copies of the same song. So when you go to add an entire artist's catalog to your playlist, you have to either add them one at a time or go back and delete the duplicate copies.

1. Most of them made their accounts on the same day that they posted their negative reviews. (I would say ALL of them, but it doesn't say when the first few negative reviewers started their accounts.) This means they only created an account for that one purpose.

2. All of them don't have ANY other activity on Cnet! They only used their account for one thing only..to post a negative review and then leave!

3. They are trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator of knowledge amongst people that use the internet. Saying that Groove shark "has viruses" is something that everyone from a grandmother to a gradeschooler can understand and fear.

4. They have NO PROOF of what they are saying! They are outright liars! I know this because I have used GrooveShark and have NEVER had these issues that they are claiming.

5. Over 261,235 "like" Grooveshark on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/Grooveshark?sk=wall You don't get those kind of numbers by having viruses on your website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bet these fake users all work for the industry or are paid by people who work for the industry. The service has over a quarter of a million likes on facebook! Listen to them! Not these 8 or so fake reviewers

E-mail This Review

Thank You, !

Report Offensive Content

If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the CNET's Site Terms of Use, you can report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once reported, our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed.